Discontent with Washington, US states look to nullify federal laws

State legislatures in the US are considering more than 200 bills – from gun rights to marijuana accessibility – that would nullify or work around various federal laws and regulations crafted in Washington, according to a states’ rights advocacy group.

The Tenth Amendment Center
told The Hill the 200-plus pieces of current legislation
seeking to challenge or wrest control from the federal government
mark a climate of both suspicion and empowerment. The center
tracks and supports states’ rights initiatives across the
country.

“People are becoming more and more concerned about the
overreach of the federal government,” said the group’s
spokesman, Mike Maharrey. “They feel the federal government
is trying to do too much, it’s too big and it’s getting more and
more in debt.”

While federal law ultimately supersedes state law – if
enforcement power is exercised – the Tenth Amendment, part of the
Bill of Rights, says that the federal government is limited to
powers granted in the US Constitution.

For instance, a bill that would “block any future federal
bans on firearms or magazines” passed the Montana state
House on Monday. Montana’s bill is one of eleven nationwide,
according to the center, that aim to counter federal gun
control measures.

Twelve
states are seeking to challenge federal surveillance authority
vested in the likes of the National Security Agency, revealed in
June 2013 to be operating a global spying regime to advance
American domestic and foreign policy goals.

Both the New Jersey state Assembly and Senate have
passed a measure to halt the state’s participation in the
Pentagon’s 1033 program, which supplies surplus military weaponry
to local law enforcement agencies. Gov. Chris Christie
has yet to sign the bill into law.

The 1033 program and police militarization overall have received
heightened scrutiny – especially after the civil unrest in
Ferguson, Mo. last year, when, after a fatal police shooting of
an unarmed teenager, the angered community was
besieged by local police driving armored vehicles and tossing
tear gas into protesting crowds.

As RT has reported,
New Hampshire is one of
five other states seeking laws to curb its participation in
federal combat-gear programs.

Seven states have introduced measures that would mean opting
out of the federal government’s purported authority to
indefinitely detain a person within the US, a power that was
granted under the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
and the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force. The NDAA
provision was signed by President Barack Obama in early 2012 amid
the Occupy movement in the US.

Three states – California, Michigan, and Virginia – have passed
some form of an anti-indefinite detention law.

In recent years, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has been
the favorite federal law that states have tried to redress.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures,
21 states have passed laws and measures that challenge or attempt
to opt out of the health reform law. Since the law’s passage in
2010, at least 47 of 50 state legislatures have considered bills
to “limit, alter, or oppose selected state or federal
actions” related to the federal health law’s passage,
according to the NCSL.